A recent article in DM News used the term ?mental opt-out? to describe someone who does not unsubscribe from a list but just stops reading or even opening the e-mails.

In surveying my list, I discovered a lot of mental opt-outs among my e-zine subscribers: they hadn?t unsubscribed yet but they no longer read the messages.

Although mental opt-out isn?t included in the figures when you measure opt-out rate, it?s just as dangerous to your online business.

Reason: if people don?t read what you send anymore, it means they either don?t value the content or don?t trust you.

And if they don?t open and read your messages, they won?t respond to your offers.

According to a study reported in Target Marketing, after subscribers are on a list for two years, their propensity to open e-mail declines by nearly 40 percent.

How do you prevent mental opt-out? One way is to keep an eye on your open rate. If it sinks, that?s a sign people are mentally opting out and you need to do something about it.

Make sure your content is fresh and valuable. Surprisingly, many of your subscribers save or remember your e-mails, and if you try to recycle old messages, it won?t be received well.

If you suspect mental opt-out, try cutting back on the frequency of your e-mail blasts. Many subscribers are absolutely bombarded with e-mail ? yours and others ? and yours will stand out more if there are fewer per week. In the good old days of direct mail we used the term ?list fatigue? to describe a list that was being mailed to too often. Well, e-lists can suffer list fatigue too.

Send fewer sales messages and more content messages. A minimum of 50% of your e-mails should be pure content. I used to send two and even sometimes three sales messages a week. Now the majority of my e-mails will be pure content.

I found the best way to uncover mental opt-out was to ask my subscribers (including you) whether I was sending out too many sales messages and whether my newsletter contained enough content for them.

You can do this with your list, and believe me, your subscribers won?t be shy about speaking up for what they want from their subscription to your service.

Adjust what you are doing, give them what they want, and they will start to mentally opt in again, read your messages, and respond to your offers. But not overnight. It takes time to rebuild trust.

Do you know who is on your list and what topics they are most interested in? You can find out with an online survey using a tool like surveymonkey.com. We did this and it really helped me understand my audience better. Your subscribers will also appreciate that you took the time to do a survey to find out what they want.

There are only three ways to learn either a new process (e.g., starting an Internet business) or a new skill (e.g., copywriting): studying, observing, and doing.

The 25-50-25 rule says that to master a skill or process, and put what you learn into practical action, you must divide your time as follows:

>> No more than 25% of your time is spent studying ? i.e., reading books, going to boot camps, attending workshops, dialing into tele-seminars, listening to CDs in your car.

>> No more than 25% of your time is spent observing ? watching what successful people in your field are already doing; e.g., if you want to become a direct mail copywriter, this means reading and analyzing the direct mail you get in your mail box each day.

>> At least 50% of your time is spent actually DOING the thing you are studying and observing ? e.g., if you want to sell information products on the Internet, you are creating your first product ? designing your Web site ? or building your list.

Acquiring business knowledge is a worthwhile activity. But without action, that knowledge is worthless to you.

Here?s a little secret that may be helpful: You don?t have to know everything — or even most of what there is to know ? to succeed in most endeavors.

For example, there are hundreds of strategies for making money on the Internet.

But you can make a six-figure annual income online using only a few of them, even if you never bother to learn the others.

When we were kids, our parents and teachers told us to study, study, study.

But I see many people today much more enamored with studying and reading about business, marketing, freelancing, and entrepreneurship than actually doing.

Well, I understand that. Reading about marketing is fascinating — and fun. And it?s within your comfort zone.

But the money is in the doing, not the reading.

Follow the 25-50-25 rule, and you?ll be doing ? and making money ? at least half the time.

According to an article in The Record (5/15/10), here is how average daily media use breaks down among 8 to 18-year-olds:

*Television — 4 hours and 29 minutes.
*Music/audio — 2 hours and 31 minutes.
*Computer — 1 hour and 29 minutes.
*Video games — 1 hour and 13 minutes.
*Print — 38 minutes.

In his column in Target Marketing (5/2010, p. 42), Denny Hatch said that a large percentage of the population — 18 to 34 year olds and 62-plus — prefer direct mail to e-mail.

If you are in these groups, or outside them, which would you rather receive — e-mail marketing, direct mail, both, or neither?

If neither, what’s the best way for marketers to communicate with you?

An article in today’s PW Daily notes that there are over a million books published each year — about 75% self published and 25% traditionally published.

Assuming publishers work Monday through Friday, that’s a staggering 4,000 new books published per day!

CV, an editor, told me that what’s wrong with book publishing today is that there are too many books published. Given these latest statistics, it’s hard to argue.

Do you think the glut of books is bad for aspiring authors, because there’s already too much to read out there — and too much competition for new books?

Or do you think it’s positive, with so many new authors getting their books out these days through either traditional publishers or self publishing?

In his Target marketing column (4/10, p. 34), Denny Hatch notes that there are only 4 reasons why people will buy from you:

1–Price.
2–Service.
3–Quality.
4–Exclusivity.

Of these, exclusivity is the most enviable position to possess.

“If you can move your business into exclusivity, you have no worried about price, service, and competition,” writes Denny.

Can you think of any other motivations to add to Denny’s list of 4 reasons to buy?

Are you in a business that offers something exclusive?

Recently I took my family to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant.

While we were waiting to be served, my wife was busy checking fabric samples on her mobile (she is a home stager).

My older son was engaged with some app on his new iPhone.

My younger son was busy listening to music on his iPod.

I, not possessing any of these devices, was left with no one to talk with, twiddling my thumbs — alone for all practical purposes, despite the 3 other people at my table.

What an odd digital world we live in.

I just came back from a colonoscopy.

So I’m too zonked out from the general anesthesia to blog coherently on a marketing topic.

But I did learn a few things from the procedure:

1–Any day you are not at the doctor’s office is a good day.

2–Any day you are in good health is a good day.

3–I can drink 64 ounces of Gatorade with Miralax in an hour — but I sure don’t want to do it again.

4–Have your medical tests on time. I was 2 years late with my colonoscopy, which gave me reason to be nervous about the results (though I really wasn’t; but why take chances?).

5–Food never tastes as good as when you’ve been fasting — suggesting that taking a break from things can help you enjoy them more.